Metroid Prime Trilogy Is In Stock At GameStop For $85

In 2009, Nintendo released a compilation of their Metroid Prime series for the Wii, titled Metrioid Prime Trilogy. The compilation came in steel casing, and included all three Metroid Prime games with graphical improvements, Wii Remote controls and a new user interface that let you choose between the different games.

Unfortunately, Metroid Prime Trilogy was released in limited quantities and went out of print very quickly, so if you didn’t buy it then, you’d missed the train.

This week, however, GameStop have the game back in stock and are selling it for $85. GameStop say that their new copies are used, but they probably aren’t. Used copies can fetch a higher price than brand new copies do, and chances are Metroid Prime Trilogy, just like GameStop’s restock of Xenoblade Chronicles, isn’t really used.

just metroid prime 1 with wiimote controls justifies this purchase, that game was absoutely amazing. perfect 3d evolution of metroid

frogfro

Wow this is low, even for GameStop.
I’m rather amazed though, that Nintendo hasn’t said anything about this. With both Metroid Prime Triology and Xenoblade having new copies essentially sold as used none of the profits go to them. You would think that there would be something preventing this from happening in the first place.

Nintendo making or not making money on these sales has everything to do with how the copies were obtained, not the manner in which they are resold.

The publishers make money by retailers purchasing stock from them to resell, not by the retailer reselling the product to their customers (it doesn’t matter if its “new” or “used”, that’s not how traditional retail works). If Gamestop obtained these copies from Nintendo (as some seem to believe) then I highly doubt Nintendo transacted them for free.

M’iau M’iaut

It is actually quite rare for GS or any retailer to buy direct from a dev/publisher — there are always middlemen.

OneOkami

Publisher, distributor or where ever they technically purchase stock from. My point is that the transaction of a customer buying a game, “new” or “used” from a retailer does not directly link to a profit for the publisher as so many people seem to think.

M’iau M’iaut

Quite understood, the money in the til to the pub is only with that first purchase. Back in the PS1/2 age there were several companies who went around and paid to reprint titles that were gaining value. Atlus games being one of the most prevalent. In return, they basically could distribute the games however the heck they wanted. The fact that two scarcer titles all of a sudden show up with more than just a few ‘trade in’ numbers screams that the same may have happened here.

Laer_HeiSeiRyuu

Yeah, Nintendo didnt reprint them

Soma

Like all retail chains, GameStop/EB Games has to do regular inventory counts.

Most major retailers have a warehouse or warehouses where they keep merchandise to be shipped to their stores. In a warehouse that is likely understaffed and overflowing with stock, it’s understandable that, occasionally, a box of new stock can be misplaced and/or miscounted.
When merchandise goes missing or is miscounted, the company must adjust their inventory to the counted numbers, even if the company sustains a loss of merchandise. This costs the company money and a loss of sales.

If the merchandise that was assumed lost resurfaces, even if it was new merchandise at the time, the inventory has to be adjusted again. At this point, the merchandise has already been paid for and then posted at a loss. For a lot of retailers, this merchandise goes to smaller stores that the company owns, or sold off to outlet stores.
I’m assuming that in the case of GameStop, it becomes “Used” inventory that can then be sold at stores.

While I do think that a price of $84.99 is a little bit absurd for a major corporate retailer, I don’t think it’s all that bad of a price, as Vesperion has pointed out, the game goes for much higher elsewhere.

It’s not that they can’t, it’s that they don’t care. Now whether that’s out of apathy or because those Xenoblade Wii U listings on walmart.com aren’t for the sequel, we can’t be sure.

The games were not huge hits and Xenoblade has not received this much attention since release. It didn’t exactly fly off store shelves, despite being more popular in NA than other regions. I saw MPT in Target long after the price had gone up online.

Despite the lure of backwards compatibility, NoA specifically isn’t interested enough in Wii games to put in the effort.

KingGunblader

Metroid Prime is one of my favourite games of all time, and it was even better with the Wii controls. The steelbook case is pretty sexy too. Any Metroid fan should have bought this Day 1, IMO.

EDIT: I should probably clarify, while I think it’s essential to own this collection, that doesn’t excuse GameStop’s behaviour here. But would we expect anything less from them?

dragoon_slayer12

The purpose of gamestop, best buy, and major chains are for locked prices. If I want to pay above msrp, I’ll look at local game stores, comic shops, and online shops like Amazon and eBay…. Gamestop is becoming more and more pathetic as the years go by….

Laer_HeiSeiRyuu

You cant sell over MSRP, only lower.

dragoon_slayer12

Tell mentioned retailers that when you look up Phantasy Star Online for the Gamecube (either version)

ZEROthefirst

Mostly PSO+ now though. The normal version’s still pricey, but it’s not as ridiculous as + has become… sadly the only real difference is a few online only quests are available offline lol.

You can sell anything for whatever price you want. The S in MSRP means SUGGESTED. Setting a maximum retail price makes no sense to anyone involved.

Selling for a higher price is not usually done because of supply and competition – a retailer knows that a customer can visit a competing shop and buy a game for $59.99, so they don’t try to sell the game at $65.00.

The only restriction is MAP, Minimum Advertised Price, which you’re free to sell below as long as you don’t put it in a flyer (that’s the reason for amazon’s ‘add to cart to see price’ feature).

Laer_HeiSeiRyuu

Okay let me make it clearer for you.

Gamestop is NOT allowed to sell Xenoblade NEW for over 50$

M’iau M’iaut

On this one gentle is right. There was a time Gamestop had +/- $5 or so tier stores based off location and competition. Fast food places always have a disclaimer somewhere in an ad about ‘price may vary’.

Wouldn’t an agreement like that verge on price fixing? I’d like to see any evidence of your claim.

Vesperion

Actually Gamestop was one of the Local stores back when they were Funcoland. Yeah they totally grew into major chain, but they still mainly sell games

AuraGuyChris

That’s pretty messed up.
The convenient Amazon list line on this page shows all three games are less than ten dollars.

Vesperion

It’s strange how everyone complains when the average price of the game is like $80. A new copy of the game runs up to $250 on amazon and about almost the same on ebay. There aren’t many current gen games this rare at all.

Is it really that weird to see prices that high for a rare game? They can still be obtained separately for much cheaper

theoriginaled

People aren’t complaining that they are getting a used rare game at a lower price than new copies though. They’re complaining that after a reprint the new game is still being labelled as rare and sold at an inflated price on a technicality because one retailer has a monopoly on the reprint and no competition to drive down the price they’re charging for it. They can do it if they want obviously but its all a tad unscrupulous.

Vesperion

They were limited in the first place. When was there a reprint?

ssj3gokou24

And here i am with my unopened copy.

anarchy_panty

You’re a monster. :(

Arcana Wiz

*jealous stare…. I dont even have a wii/wii u but i’m jealous….

Barrylocke89

I know what you mean, I still have my unopened copy of Xenoblade Chronicles :P Unfortunately the preorder booklet got ruined by water damage so the overall value is lower than it could have been, but I’d say that it’s probably the most valuable game in my collection (though my used copy of Valkyrie Profile may come close).

I’ve resolved that if I’m ever REALLY desperate for money, I’ll sell the game, and when the time comes that I want to play it, I’ll “find” a copy another way. I already did my part to support the games release, so it’s not a huge deal for me to play the game “legit”.

Nogib

Video games are not a wise investment. They aren’t at all like commodities such as gold and silver. You should buy games to enjoy them.

ssj3gokou24

But, who said i bought it for an investment? maybe i have an addiction and my original intention was to play it….but that was a couple of yrs ago. I have a prob, lol.

Taxonomic

Funny you should say that. I had a bunch of Saturn and SNES RPGS in boxes, mint condition, and sold them last week for over a grand.

Symbol de Au

Gold and Silver aren’t considered wise investments either. I hear Gold hasn’t even kept up with inflation.

zferolie

I got a used copy last X-mas for like 25 bucks. No case or booklet sadly, but at least I have it :D I can always buy the case and book on e-bay one day

EDIT: And do we have proof that these are new games being sold as used? I have yet to see an full proof of this…

One guys vulgar rant isn’t proof of anything. This thread is quickly moving way off topic folks.

Guest

Have some respect for AlphaOmegaSin, he always calls out bullshit when he sees it. Also, discussing the reason why the game is so absurdly over-priced is off-topic?

M’iau M’iaut

As he sees it is not absolutely as it is. If he is wrong as to the reason, then it is even more simply a vulgar rant.

GameTaco

It’s interesting seeing this. Take a mix of back stock and trade-ins, put all of it back on shelves as Used, and call it “Vintage.” I picked up on this when Xenoblade popped back up on the website and raised an eyebrow.

I mean, I’m okay with it. Supply and demand and so on. They already do this in more rare quantities when they get trade-ins for Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or what feels like any given Atlus title. I guess it’s the *way* they’re doing it that truly pushes the practice well into gray area.

It’s one thing to rerelease a title, even without an actual new shipment. However, by labeling the games as Used… Doesn’t this mean Gamestop is collecting 100% (or 135% or so, due to the markup… Capitalism, ho!) on these sales? Shouldn’t they be directing attention AWAY from the pre-owned/resold games debate?

DCBlackbird

That’s how you do it Capcom

Brimfyre

Crooks

ShawnOtakuSomething

gamestop

Arcana Wiz

LOLOLOLOLOL.

Godman

It’s like second nature for gamers to hate a business who’s trying to be a business
There’s nothing wrong with Gamestop, a used game retailer, trying to get in the whole rare games biz. If you want to blame someone blame the collectors for making such big deals about these things in the first place and charging over $100 second handed.
If you can find it cheaper then good for you, but cut out the damn bashing already. . .its disgusting

epy

Geez guys, stop siding with anti-consumer business practices when they’re clearly not on your side nor do they have your best interests in mind… it’s disgusting. Ugh…

Vesperion

Gamestop doesn’t care about you, but nor does Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Amazon, or whatever is still around. They are all businesses whose sole purpose is to make money.

Neither does the individual whom pre-orders more than one copy of game to sell at a higher price. Gamestop is probably the lesser of the two evils, in most cases.

epy

Of course they don’t, what I don’t get is people defending THAT.

Vesperion

It’s more like trying to make sense of it. Could you honesty find Metroid Prime Trilogy cheaper elsewhere? If Gamestop sold it any cheaper (like they did before) it would already be sold out and on ebay for the same price it is now

epy

So… it’s better to gauge at 150% of its new price and have it not sold out while looking like scammers? Look, it’s fine if you agree with this, but sitting on a whole stock of games while claiming they were sold out, taking off the wrapper and claiming they’re used and suddenly appeared out of nowhere and charge whatever they want for it is a MAGNIFICENT way to make money, oh yes it is, but so are so are most scams and shady practices out there. The Xenoblade Chronicles case is even worse seeing as they were the only retailer that carried it besides the Nintendo store.

M’iau M’iaut

The alternative is a rare market (like we have) where the selling price of OOP titles is what the last nitwit was willing to blind pay on ebay for it. There’s no market control on that. Here folks can determine for themselves whether or not they are willing to pay a set price. And it really isn’t your duty — and this certainly isn’t the place — for you to degrade other posters because they make a decision different than yours.

epy

Degrade posters you say? I recall saying I couldn’t understand why they should defend this practice and I stated my argument, you know like a discussion.

Fair enough on that point, though it certainly wasn’t meant to degrade anyone (it’s JonTron…) and I think I replied to the wrong person. I still stand on every thing else and honestly think that if this is succesful, you’ll see many more cases of them witholding stock, claim it sold out and then pull this stunt down the line and I’m sure we’re the only ones that are going to be losing out because of this.

M’iau M’iaut

Do remember this, if these games were purchased as second hand items — as with the reprints noted below that have a far longer history than this game — legally, they can’t be turned around and resold as new, regardless of their condition.

Vesperion

I get your feelings on the matter, but this isn’t first time this happened. Marvel 2 was pretty high on PS2 (even more on Xbox) that one Growlancer game on ps2, Metroid, and now Xenoblade. Heck i remember back in the day when Gamestop was Funcoland and sold Dragon Ball GT Final Bout For up to $150.

I’m also not buying this take outta wrapper and call it used thing that i keep hearing on the internet either. The Xenoblade case could be different, but this collection has been out for like 3 years

EDIT: But now that i think about it……could you even sell the game new since it’s so old?

Godman

While I wouldn’t say its our best interest, its certainly better than the horrid prices we can find these games elsewhere
And as I said if you can find it cheaper good for you, but there is no point in bashing a business trying to be a business

ZekeFreek

Someone gave me this as a gift the first time it came out, I didn’t think it’d be really limited.

I bought my copy at Toys R Us in a buy 2 get 1 one free sale. Had no idea, either.

FX102A

Whilst I have nothing against a business trying to make a profit, the issue here is that Gamestop is suspected of obtaining New copies, which should be sold at a reasonable price decided by the publisher, but opening them and reclassifying them as second hand so they can charge their own inflated price.

That is the bit that sickens me, especially since I believe the only person who should be allowed to remove the shrink wrap is the customer who buys the game, but that’s my extremist views.

No I saw a report about this that wasn’t from Kotaku a few years back. Gamestop does do stuff like that in regard of promotional codes and the like that come with some games.

FX102A

Who knows, its just suspected. But would they really have just been buying up or sitting on copies waiting for the value to go up?

Again, not illegal, just a bit douchy towards the customers as I feel its kind of an unwritten rule that businesses should sell stock at reasonable prices regardless of how rare something has become (or at least never above its original RRP).

Of course if they have plenty of copies, it isn’t exactly rare, they’re just taking advantage on being sole supplier.

Kaitou21

Why did I sell my copy back when I first bought it………

XiaomuArisu

How about buying used copies in Amazon for half the price?
Or buy the games separatly?
I saw MP3 for 9,99€

Nuts, for a split second I saw the header image and thought there was going to be some kind of Metroid Prime HD thing. Oh well.

SirRichard

So shortly after the Xenoblade Chronicles thing, they are really not even trying to hide what they’re up to, are they? While I don’t believe used games are as evil as developers would like to claim they are, this is just plain awful on Gamestop’s part and I’m surprised Nintendo hasn’t stepped in.

That’s interesting. I wonder what’s going on behind the scenes, because that’s two Nintendo games suddenly getting an influx of pricey “used” stock in short order.

M’iau M’iaut

Noted below but there have been companies paying for rare reprints since the PS1 days. In return for paying the costs of doing so they become the distributors of such product. The first reprints of Disgaea back in the day even had mention of this printed in the manual.

SirRichard

Ah, I didn’t know about that. That would explain it.The price is still dodgy to me, though.

NintendoPSX

To be fair, this is roughly the same price you’d pay on Ebay/Amazon. Where’s the big deal? I’m not seeing it. Then again I’m a guy who pays $90 for a cartridge of Super Mario RPG on the SNES so I might just be a rarity here.

theoriginaled

The problem is that supposed rarity is what drives the price so high. gamestop is getting in a reprint continuing to declare it rare and keeping the price set high because they know no one else can compete.

Will Jay

Thank god I bought the trilogy a few months back for $60 instead of $85.

Oh geez I saw it for like 70$ used one time there and wanted to wait it out I guess I screwed myself further yet. lol
I just need MP2 so I shouldn’t bother with this anyways.

AnimusVox

I heard something similar with Xenoblade; they got it back in stock or something but for $90?

KnifeAndFork

Icould never get into these games anyway. Too boring an too Western. I prefer original Metroid and Super Metroid

TheExile285

Really wish Nintendo would make more of their games available for DD….

evilmajikman

nope.avi

Robgoro

I think that the following sentence sums up everyone’s feelings on the matter: glad that (good game here) is being reprinted, pretty unhappy that it’s being sold at a monopolistic price by GameStop.

Taxonomic

Last time I was at Gamestop I was talking about my RPG collection, and the guy working there told me my Xenoblade would get me a lot of credit there. I told him that no way I’d sell it. Guess it’s a bit more rare than they say.

Disregarding the jacked-up price for a moment, marking a new game as used is usually a boon for the consumer.

Thanks to Gamestop’s if-you-just-didn’t-like-the-game return policy, you can rent the game for a week for free.

GS also sets deeper discounts on used games (B2G1 promos, PUR, birthday code, CAG16) for those in the know. There’s also a lower chance you’ll get a scratched up, non-functional disc, and a better chance you’ll get an original case and manual.

Oliver Teigaga

Or Nintendo can just make wii games digitally available…

I have no idea whats taking them so long. I really wanna play Xenoblade but I’m not paying £70 for it.

Quan Chi

In this case, having the original games are better than having the trilogy set because trilogy is missing effects and some things have become censored.

Video game stories from other sites on the web. These links leave Siliconera.